The Diplomat
Ecuador will hold this coming Sunday the second round of the presidential elections, in which almost 180,000 Ecuadorians living in Spain will be able to participate, 43% of the expatriate voters worldwide.
According to the Embassy of Ecuador in Madrid, the Ecuadorian community with the right to vote residing in Spain is formed by 179,614 citizens, according to the latest data on voters domiciled abroad of the National Electoral Council of Ecuador (CNE), corresponding to June 14, 2020.
The election day will take place between nine in the morning and seven in the evening in the 19 electoral precincts established by the CNE in Madrid, (66,790 voters), Toledo (1,252), Barcelona (35,338), Terrassa (995), Navarra (2,656), Murcia (21,824), Jumilla and Yecla (1,083), Lorca (3. 533), Cartagena and Mar Menor (2,765), Valencia (17,248), Alicante (6,631), Malaga (2,403), Seville and Cordoba (2,892), Almeria (1,618), Granada (1,991), Marbella (2,186), Huelva (641), Vera (1,669) and Palma de Mallorca (6,099), cities where 95% of the Ecuadorian electorate eligible to vote is concentrated.
Ecuadorian voters, both in the country and in the diaspora, will have to choose the next head of State and Government of the country, with his respective vice-president, between the candidate of the Union for Hope party (UNES), Andres Arauz, and the leader of the CREO 21- and Social Christian Party 6 alliance, Guillermo Lasso.
The total electoral roll is formed by 13,099,150 citizens, of which 12,688,911 are in national territory and 410,239, 3.13% of the total electorate, reside abroad. 62% of the electoral roll abroad is in the Europe, Asia and Oceania constituency, 31% in Canada and the United States and 7% in Latin America, the Caribbean and Africa. Spain concentrates 71% of the vote in the Europe, Asia and Oceania constituency and 43% of the vote abroad.
The vote abroad is not compulsory, so those who do not go to the polls will not be fined, as long as they prove before the CNE their condition of residents abroad. Regarding the situation created by the COVID-19, the electoral precincts will comply with the biosecurity, ventilation, disinfection and social distancing measures recommended by the CNE and by the respective Autonomous Communities, as well as temperature control points, provision of hydroalcoholic gel, masks, and protective equipment that will be given to the members of the 375 Voting Reception Boards throughout Spain, as informed by the Embassy.
